Nineham was at the front, alongside trade unionists, MPs and other activists.

“Even when we arrived at Hyde Park, there were hundreds of thousands of people on the Embankment who had still not moved.

“We got to Hyde Park at about 2.30pm, and it was absolutely rammed. People had just turned up here, set up stalls, and there was music playing.”

Two giant screens had been set up with speakers from Tony Benn to Miss Dynamite addressing the crowds.

“It started to get dark about 5pm, but people were still coming in. they started to light fires, there was such a sense of occasion that they did not want to leave.”

Despite the protests, Iraq was invaded March weeks later, and Tony Blair went on to win the 2005 Election.

So what did it all achieve?

“Obviously we didn't stop the war, but we made it very difficult for governments to fight future wars,” he says. "What developed on February 15 was a kind of anti-war block that has been very obstinate.

“The government is continuing to conduct these wars, but public opinion is very much against them.”

The steward insists the former Prime Minister was eventually “hounded out” of office because of Iraq. “He tried to move it on, but the fact was that it was Iraq that did for him.”

In the decade that followed, he admits the surge in public support for the military has made his job more difficult, and says much of the protest movement is now fighting against public spending cuts.

Has the anti-war movement lost its way?

“In a certain sense the issue isn't so centre stage given the austerity cuts, and a lot of the activism associated with the war has moved on,” Nineham says.

“But we don't think that is a perennial thing. People will be marching again in very very large numbers, I am absolutely convinced."